Pregnant women with a history of sexually transmitted infections have a higher risk of 'stillbirth and premature birth'

Pregnant women with a history of sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, have a higher risk of stillbirth and premature birth, a study has warned.

The infections are already linked to complications during pregnancy, but researchers claim the risk exists even if they suffered them prior to conception.

Both STIs are on the rise across England, with chlamydia accounting for 46 per cent of all new STI diagnoses in 2012 (206,912 cases).

Gonorrhoea cases have jumped 21 per cent in one year, to 25,525 cases.

For the new study, experts from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney examined data for more than 350,000 women who had their first baby between 1999 and 2008.

Of the group, 3,658 had at least one chlamydia infection before the birth, with 80 per cent of these cases diagnosed before conception.

Some 196 women in the group had been diagnosed with gonorrhoea before the birth, with just under 85 per cent of cases diagnosed before conception.

Half of those diagnosed with gonorrhoea had also previously been infected with chlamydia.

Overall, 4 per cent of the women had an unplanned premature birth, 12% had babies who were small for dates and 0.6 per cent (2,234) of the babies were stillborn.

Even after taking into account factors such as age, social disadvantage, smoking, and conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, women who had had a prior infection with either chlamydia or gonorrhoea were still at heightened risk.

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Women who had had chlamydia were 17 per cent more likely to have an unplanned premature birth and 40 per cent more likely to have a stillborn baby, the results showed.

Meanwhile, those who had had gonorrhoea were more than twice as likely to have a premature birth.

Chlamydia (pictured) and gonorrhea are already linked to complications during pregnancy, but researchers claim the risk exists even if they suffered them prior to conception

For women previously diagnosed with chlamydia, the risk of an unplanned premature birth did not differ between those diagnosed more than a year before conception, within a year of conception, or during pregnancy.

Writing online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, the authors said their findings do not prove a direct cause between infections and pregnancy complications.

But they added: 'Our results suggest that sexually transmissible infections in pregnancy and the preconception period may be important in predicting adverse obstetric outcomes.'